1/21/18 Habakkuk 2:6-20
Nobody wants a “woe” spoken to them by a prophet of God, right? Nobody wants a “woe are you when you __________________”, declared to you, right?
It would seem we would be off of the very deep end of the pier if a woe is being declared to us. If you would assume God would not declare a woe to us as followers of Jesus you would be mistaken and taking God’s grace a bit for granted. So how do we keep woes from being declared to us?
How do we stay properly on guard, doing preventive maintenance, so to speak? To answer that I’ll first note that Pastor Ryan mentioned yesterday that we do have ‘Ah Ha!’ moments in life. An Ah Ha! moment is when we have a suddenly illuminating realization of truth or God works miraculously ahead of our expectations to bless us.
By definition, those moments are neither the norm, nor are they precedent setting, with that not the way most of life is lived. Most of life is meant to be lived within the structure or framework God has provided for us. Accepting the framework God has offered for us to live within is trusting Him. It is believing Him. It is faith. It is trusting in His wisdom and that He really does know how life is best to be lived. It is also trusting, that living within His guidance leads to our fulfilling His purposes (which may not always look like what we thought they would look like).
Most times God speaks to us and blesses us in what we could call mundane obedience.
We certainly welcome Ah Ha! moments, but in them is not where everyday life, or better yet, every moment life is lived.
So God, bring on the Ah Ha! moments. But in the meantime, if we love Him, we will abide in Him and we will do what He commands. When we obey His commands, it proves we trust His word.
It proves or shows we trust Him. We trust the framework He’s given us.
Think of ways that living according to God’s commands [His framework], is a better and healthier way to live based on the outcomes of those choices?
Psalm 37:4,5; Proverbs 3:6,7
On the other hand, have you ever suffered loss for obeying one of Jesus’ commands? It is then that you are fulfilling God’s purposes for other reasons rather than your immediate blessing. Jesus had a word for this too: Matthew 5:10-13; 1 Peter 4:19
And then there’s, be still, know that I am God… Philippians 4:6,7; Psalm 46:10
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